Trappist Beer

A Trappist beer is beer brewed in a monastery.  Brian has been talking about the seven Trappist beers and wanting to visit the different monasteries for a while now.  The one closest to our house is the Achel Brewery in Belgium.



 It is located in the Abbey of Saint Benedict.  We were able to eat here and sample some of the Achel brew on tap.  I don't know about you, but knowing that monks made my beer and all of the profits from the brewery support the monastery or other charities just makes that beer taste better.



The grounds around the Abbey were beautiful.  Tons of walking/hiking trails.  The girls had a great time running through the trees.



When we saw this I looked at Brian and said what does this remind you of?

Carowinds of course!

Carolyn had fun jumping from the BE Belgian side of the road to the NL Netherlands side of the road.  Not quite the same as the North Carolina /South Carolina line in the middle of Carowinds amusement park but it was funny that it reminded both Brian and I of that.



Some of the monastery was off limits.  We were able to go into a little chapel area, but we couldn't go in the big beautiful church in the background.  I wasn't really even able to get a good picture of it.  I really don't think my quiet (loud) children would have interrupted the monks peace.



They did have a gift shop on the grounds and Carolyn picked out a 125 Euro baby Jesus that she wanted.  I am all for supporting the monastery but we told her we weren't getting baby Jesus.  He needed to stay with the 300 Euro Mary and 250 Euro Joseph.

Instead we told her that she could take home a stick.  I love this child.  This is her ever so happy with her stick she chose to take home.



I can't remember what I said to her to get her to laugh like this but this is the best laugh.  Head back, Eyes Closed....  Bliss!



Little Sidney and her smirk.  She liked running around in the trees so much that when it was time to go..



she had a total melt down.  The monks might not have let us back into their area, but I am by far certain that they were aware of our presence.

Pictures like these ..

When I see pictures like these I think...



 I sure am blessed and then I think ..



poor Brian.  They have the angelic look down to an art form.

Thorn, Netherlands

The Sun!  Sunday was a gorgeous day so we decided to head to the town of Thorn in the Netherlands.



Thorn is known as "the white village" due to all of the buildings around the center of town being white.



Our first stop was the Pannekoeken Bakker restaurant.  The Dutch make their pannekoeken thin like crepes and top them with anything from apples to ham and cheese.  This restaurant has 240 different kinds of pannekoeken to choose from.  Before when we went they had an English menu.  For some reason they got rid of it so this made our selection easily narrowed down to what we could decipher.  This one was delicious.



Carolyn loves it here because this little house in the restaurant leads down to



this play area underground.  (In the picture above Carolyn couldn't figure out how to get back up and Brian was about to have to go in for a rescue mission.)



Across the street from the restaurant is The Abbey Church of Thorn which was founded towards the end of the 10th century.



Not only does the church really stand out because it is massive but also because it is the only nonwhite building in the town.  But inside it follows suit.





The whole time we were in the church Carolyn kept saying Sidney we have to be quiet. Shhh.  O Mommy isn't it beautiful.  The only part she was a little unsure of is under the altar they have a basement/crypt area that had two mummies.  I was a little unsure of that myself though.



She was fine once we left that area and she got to help her Dad light a candle for Papa.



I managed to get a couple of pictures of them that day too.  I confined them on a bench and got Brian to jump up and down behind me to get



a picture of both of them smiling their smiles (Carolyn is such a cheese grinner and Sidney is more of a smirker).  This makes me SMILE.

Mullet

You would be happy too.



If your mullet was now ponytail ready.

PaPa

Brian's grandfather, Charles Caroll Burley Sr. passed away on January 2, 2011. Unfortunately due to things he could not control he was unable to make it home for the funeral. Words just can't be said as to how he felt about that, but here are some of Brian's words for the girls as to how he felt about his PaPa:



He was the hardest working man I've ever known, an incredible husband, father, grandfather, Christian, soldier, scouter, and church leader.  I have so many wonderful memories of him when I was growing up. He took us to the fair, my first Gamecock football game, the beach, fishing, everywhere.



He loved his  life and he loved watching us have our own experiences in ours. He was there to rescue me when I was in trouble, and he was there to cheer me on during my successes. I will never forget walking up into the stands when I graduated from The Citadel and seeing him standing there with tears in his eyes...I never had a doubt that he was proud of me no matter what the occasion. 







He IS such an example of how to be, how to treat others, how to raise children, how to love, and how to serve our God and our country...if I can only be half the man he was as I navigate my own life I think I'll be alright.

Belgian Love

I love that we live in Germany but are so close to the Netherlands and Belgium.  We get to experience  the different cultures without having to drive very far.  Belgium is becoming my favorite country these days.  I just love all the chocolate shops, waffles, architecture and Brian loves the beer.

We decided to do their last day trip to Leuven, Belgium so they could load up on chocolates to take back with them.



Belgian Christmas markets must last forever because yet again rides were all through the town.  I do have to say this was the prettiest one  we have seen with this church as it's backdrop.



We tried to say that they weren't working but then we broke down and let them ride this one.  Brian said the whole time they were on it Sidney was going Weee, Weee.



My mom says to me - You really like behind the back pictures.  Me - I guess I never really thought about it.  Then while I was editing the pictures from their visit I realized.

Yes I do take a lot of behind the back pictures.



But with two very active little girls unless I have them contained someway a lot of times from the front I get pictures like this.



Sometimes behind the back is  just better and I can just picture their sweet little faces.



After a very long day of traveling all of our visitors made it back to the states.  And how I combat the feeling of sometimes hating we are this far away.  I ordered a bunch of Rick Steves travel books and am starting to plan more opportunities to take my behind the back pictures.

Winter Wonderland

Last time we were in Monschau, Germany Fall was in full force.  This time the whole town was covered in snow.  So much so that I had a fun time getting my stroller through the streets.



It was beautiful and the town was kind of deserted compared to how busy it was back at Halloween.  It was our own little Winter Wonderland.



Although the streets weren't filled with people, luckily most of the shops and restaurants were open.  Jeanie and Rebecca got to enjoy their first schnitzel.



The girls playing with our hats.  My mom found it just as funny as I do that American music is played in the restaurant yet our waitress couldn't understand a thing we said.





I love LOVE my camera.  As much as I love it though it can be heavy and after Bruges I decided I needed a little break from lugging it around and I started using my point and shoot.  I really like some of the shots I was able to get from it and Carolyn got to take a couple of pictures with it as well.   She took this picture.